Corporate Social Responsibility

Is this important? Do we do it to tick a box? What do we mean by Corporate Social Responsibility, and what does it mean to us and our customers to have this policy?

 

Here at One Foot Abroad we like simplicity and get right to the point, so we’ve prepared this Corporate Social Responsibility policy to help you understand where we come from and why protecting our planet is so important to us.

 

One Foot Abroad’s responsibility for climate change and global warming

 

 

The tourism industry has been growing extremely rapidly across the planet in the past 30+ years. And it is set to continue on this trajectory into the future. Worryingly, it currently represents a staggering 8% of carbon emissions worldwide.

This growth comes from an increase in numbers of travellers worldwide – in part, due to a growing middle-class population in previously developing countries (China, etc.) but also thanks to the growing number of holiday destinations, and an increased interest in holiday types different from the classic beach or cruise – such as walking, cycling and adventure holidays.

In this day and age, we bring more people to more places than ever before. It is a fact. Rather than ignoring it, it is essential to take responsibility for our carbon footprint and reduce as much as possible the negative impact on our planet while harnessing the most positive aspects of travel to the economy, communities, and wellbeing.

One Foot Abroad has played a big part in the rising popularity of some lesser-known travel destinations, and we want to take action to make our products sustainable and have a net positive impact on the planet.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility – Facts We Believe In:

 

On climate:

-Climate change is happening and represents the biggest challenge of the next 50 years.

-We’ve been using up the Earth’s yearly natural resources by August – meaning we’ve been using almost double the resources we can afford. Without getting into too many details, we can all agree that the Earth is a finite sphere of 13,000km in diameter. As such, maths prove very easily that in a finite resource environment, the use of these resources has limits and cannot go on growing forever.

 

On inequalities:

-All men and women of our planet are born equal.

–Inequality is a great threat to the planet by showcasing a standard of living which is unsustainable globally.

 

What are we doing to make things better?

• Doing something is better than doing nothing.
• There is no more time for looking away.
• The change will come from civil society (us) and not politicians.

Talking is good, but what about taking action as the point is not just to make us feel better but really act on climate change and global inequalities.

 

Running services and technology-based business means that we require material to function. We have opted for laptops so that staff can work from home, removing the need for spare PCs in meeting rooms, etc. We try and service old PCs as much as possible. We started to remove paper holiday packs 8 years ago and are trying to reduce our paper/hard copy material to a minimum but it is not down to 0 yet.

 

Our actions on the 4 core pillars Of the United Nations Global Compact

 

In order to make a stronger and more structured commitment towards playing a positive role on those issues, we joined the United Nations Global Compact in 2018. This scheme provides a framework for us to take action in this global effort as well as monitor the effects.

 

 

 

Some of the codes and resources we integrate to the running of our business

Resources for travelers:

 

• Leave no trace principles
• ATR Travelers’ Ethical Charter